Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

mitted, or escaped the butcheries, were not considered worthy to be trusted with arms during my stay at court."

Besides the Moslems, who exercise considerable influence over the Ashantees, among whom they have settled, Mr. Dupuis records the extraordinary fact of a similar settlement of the Jewish nation. The introduction of these Jews into Soudan is a subject worthy of attentive investigation. They are reported to have been the original inhabitants of those parts, before the Arabs were acquainted with central Africa. They wandered, it is believed, from Upper Egypt, while the children of Israel were in bondage. If a communication could be opened with these tribes, it is probable that much information respecting the early history of Africa might be obtained from them; since, in all probability, they were the first people residing in the regions they occupy, acquainted with the art of transmitting events by writing.

We cannot conclude, without expressing our acknowledgment to Mr. Dupuis, for the great pleasure we have derived from contemplating so singular an addition to our knowledge of African men and manners as he has furnished. We are, perhaps, the more gratified in having so recently perused so many journals of so different a complexion on the same subject. The narratives of Adams, Ridley, and Tuckey, have but scantily added to what was already known, while the personal sufferings they underwent impress our minds with regret for the cost at which those additional materials were obtained. On the other hand, Mr. Bowditch's narrative of the same regions and the same nation, is, beyond a doubt, greatly overcoloured and overcharged; and his statements, thus rendered less valuable in point of credibility, by his desire to produce effect, are still further disfigured by an egotism and a vanity as glaring and obnoxious as the high colouring which he employs.

In one point of view, this publication will be of singular use. It will tend to raise the character of the African negro, so long and unjustly treated as a being incapable of improvement, and, therefore, unworthy of respect or sympathy. One foul blot, indeed, marks the character of the people; that is, the profusion of the human sacrifices which they share with the old Mexicans, to whom they bear so great an affinity. But their manual skill, their general courtesy, their regular government, their sedate intrepidity, their powerful armies, their splendid habitations, and immense treasures, render it a phenomenon not easily explained, why it should be reserved for so late a period of African adventure, to make known to Europe the existence of a nation not a week's journey from Cape Coast Castle, and which has possessed a powerful and hereditary dynasty of conquerors of near two centuries' duration.

Views in Australia; or New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land Delineated. In fifty Views, with Descriptive Letter-press. Dedicated, by permission, to the Right Hon. Earl Bathurst. By J. Lycett, Artist to Major-general Macquarie, late Governor of these Colonies. Parts I. II. III. Price each, plain, 7s.; coloured, 10s. 6d. In the advertisement prefixed to the first number of this valuable picturesque work, it is remarked, "That when the interesting origin and

the rapidly-increasing importance of these AUSTRALIAN COLONIES are considered, it may seem surprising that the present should be the first attempt to give the British public any adequate idea of the grandeur and beauty of their natural scenery, or any correct representation of their chief settlements." When, however, we, on the other hand, take into consideration the numerous obstacles which, in those distant regions, are opposed to the labours of the most enthusiastic disciples of the arts, not only is much of that surprise abated, but we confess ourselves altogether astonished at the production of such spirited and accurate representations of the natural scenery and chief settlements of this New World. The very peculiar opportunities which the artist, Mr. Lycett, enjoyed under the immediate sanction and encouragement of the governor of the colonies, accounts in a great measure for the minute accuracy and perfect fidelity of these most interesting views; the mere sketching of which must have occupied a vast portion of the artist's time, and have required many auxiliaries, which the power of government alone could have afforded. It is but simple justice to Mr. Lycett to remark, that such opportunities could not have fallen into more faithful and able hands.

Each number contains four plates, two of which are views in New South Wales; and the other two views in Van Diemen's Land; accompanied by eight pages of letter-press, explaining the several subjects, and affording much other valuable information. The work is to be completed in twelve parts, which are, we understand, in a state of forwardness for publication; and, should the whole be found to correspond, in interest of design and excellence of execution, with those already before the public, we have no hesitation in saying that these Views in Australia, with the annexed descriptions, will form one of the most originally picturesque, interesting, and important topographical works which, of late years, have appeared in Great Britain.

London; or, Interesting Memorials of its Rise, Progress, and present State. By Sholto and Reuben Percy, Brothers of the Benedictine Monastery, Mount Benger.-3 vols. 32mo. Boys.

THE Percys are already well-known to the lovers of chaste and interesting anecdote. The Percy Anecdotes have established their reputation for extensive research, sound judgment, and delicacy of taste. For their past labors, they are entitled to our cordial acknowledgments, and we gladly hail them in their new enterprize, of exhibiting popular histories of the rise, progress, and present state of all the capitals of Europe. The volumes before us comprise the history of London. They shed a light on its antiquities, and have inspired an interest in its obscurest lanes and alleys, by some proud recollection of the olden time, which will hereafter furnish us with a perpetual topic of reflection or conversations, while threading its mighty labyrinth of streets. The plan of their work is new, and the execution is fully equal to the novelty of the design. It is at once a history and a guide. It leads us back to all that is memorable in past ages, and directs us to all that is curious, striking, or grand, at the present time.

1

"It is true, the mere antiquary may miss the description of many a relic of a former age in the ensuing volumes-the lover of heraldry and the genealogist will see no tables of descent or blazoning of arms-there is no list of the citizens who have successively filled the honourable office of churchwarden-no collection of the unmeaning and common-place epitaphs, which are rudely sculptured in every church-yard, is to be found in the following pages-nor is the weight, or tone of a single bell, in any of the churches given."

[ocr errors]

The discursive manner of our authors, the curious variety of their details, the copious infusion of anecdote, over which their peculiar habits have given them such ample command, have completely divested these volumes of the dry and monotonous character which is almost inseparable from the details with which they are conversant. The gradual rise to wealth and grandeur of our metropolis, the early opulence of its citizens, their liberal and munificent spirit-the firm barrier which they have ever opposed to arbitrary power, and their patriotism and sacrifices in every period of danger-their peculiar and characteristic habits at various periods of their history-the gorgeous pageantry, the sports and pastimes which once amused them-the splendour and magnitude of the public buildings,-are pourtrayed in the best spirit of candour, independence, and philosophy.

From details so rich and curious, we scarcely know where to select. Take the following, which will shew that sumptuous entertainments are not among the modern innovations of our citizens of London.

66

Among the citizens themselves, there appears to have been a constant rivalry in sumptuous and costly living. A dish fit for an alderman in those days, while turtle was yet unknown, was one of eels, so lusciously dressed, as to cost about five pounds, equal to, at least, eighty pounds of our present money. At the annual Spittal-feast, the cost to the Sheriffs for wine alone was, about the middle of the sixteenth century, 600 pounds; so that, supposing the guests to have drank of Malmsey only, which, though the most choice wine of that period, cost no more than one shilling a gallon, there must have been emptied, on this occasion, the incredible number of forty-eight thousand bottles!

"The expense of feasting became at length so excessive, that, in 1554, the Corporation found it necessary to pass a bye-law to restrain it. 'So huge and great,' says this curious document, had the charges of the mayoralty and shrievalty' become, through this means, that almost all good citizens fly and refuse to serve in this honorable city, only because of the great excess and chargeable fare and diet, used on the time of the said offices. To remedy this grievance it was ordained, that no mayor, or sheriff, or alderman, or commoner, should have at dinner or supper more courses than one, and not more dishes at one course than six, whether hot or cold. Some curious reservations, however, follow, which show, on the part of the corporation, a prudent care to soften, as much as possible, the hardship of this limitation. It is provided, that one or two of the same six dishes may come to the board hot, as a reward, if they will, after the first three or five are served.' It is farther specially declared, that neither brawn, nor collops with eggs, nor sallads, nor pottage, nor butter, nor cheese, nor eggs, nor herrings, nor sprats, nor shrimps, nor any shell-fish whatever, nor any kind of unbaked fruit, are to be accounted for any of the said number of dishes above mentioned!' And, moreover, as the guests could not be supposed, after such penurious fare, to have any disposition to make merry, it was decreed, that' from henceforth neither mayors nor sheriffs shall keep any lord of misrule (merry andrew or fool) in any of their said houses.'"

[ocr errors]

Under the title " Mendicity," we have some curious information. We cannot resist the temptation of extracting for the instruction of our readers, the following picture of wretchedness and want.

[ocr errors]

"Of the inhabitants of the Holy Land,' there is, at least, a floating population of 1000 persons, who have no fixed residence, and who have their beds for the night in houses fitted up for the purpose. Some of these houses have fifty beds each, if such a term can be applied to the wretched materials on which they sleep. The usual price is sixpence for a whole bed, or fourpence for half a one; and behind some of the houses Crit. Gaz. Vol. 1. No. 5. 3 G

there are cribs littered with straw, where the wretched may sleep for threepence. In one of the houses, s venteen persons have been found sleeping in the same room, and these consisting of men and their wives, single men, single women, and children. Several houses frequently belong to one person, and more than one lodging-housekeeper has amassed a handsome fortune, by the mendicants of St. Giles's. The furniture of the houses is of the most wretched description; and no persons, but those who are sunk in vice, or are draining the cup of misery to its very dregs, could frequent them. In some of the lodging-houses, breakfast is supplied to the lodgers; and such is the avarice of the keeper, that the very loaves are made of a diminutive size, in order to increase his gains; and the candles with which each poor creature is lighted to his dormitory, are made expressly for that purpose, and so minute, that a member of the House of Commons, distinguished for his philanthrophy, and for the zeal with which he enquires the wretched out,' assured the writer, that there were 240 candles in each pound, or forty candles, each of which was divided into six parts. Yet amidst so much wretchedness, there is much of wanton extravagance; and those who have traversed the purlieus of the Holy Land,' on a Saturday night, must have felt convinced, that the money squandered away in dissipation would have procured much daily comfort, both in bed and board. But the extravagance of beggars is proverbial; and an anecdote is related of old Alderman Calvert going in disguise to one of their suppers, and being much alarmed at their ordering an alderman in chains,' until he learnt from the landlord, that it was but another name for turkey and sausages."

·

The struggles which long subsisted between the Londoners, and foreign settlers, is well-known. Nor is it matter of surprise, for it sprang from prejudices inseparable from our nature. Prohibitory laws, and the most violent and outrageous assaults on these poor defenceless foreigners, were equally in vain,-they came, they settled, and by their skill, laid the foundations of our manufactories, and of our commercial greatness. But, amid all this jealousy of foreigners, the citizens of London suffered them, without hindrance or regret, to engross almost the entire shipping business of London.

[ocr errors]

"Grown rich and lazy, by means of their corporate privileges, they seem to have desired nothing more than to be left to the quiet enjoyment of them: they were without enterprize, without invention; they seem not to have had a hope of profit beyond their own walls. One Thomas Barnaby, a merchant of some note, in a letter, written about this period, to Sir William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burleigh), thus expresses himself:'I think, there is never a city in Christendom, having the occupying that this city hath, that is so slenderly provided of ships, having the sea coming to it as this hath. I have of late heard much complaining for English ships to lade goods into Spain, and other places, and none were to be had. I saw thirty-seven hoys, laden with wood and timber, go at one tide out of Rye, and never an English mariner among them.' The commerce of the country was, in fact, almost entirely carried on by foreigners, belonging chiefly to the Hanse-towns. Of fifty thousand pieces of English cloth, which were now annually sent to the Continent, scarcely a fifth part were exported by English merchants in English bottoms. The indifference which the citizens of London manifested on this point was the more reprehensible, that these companies had all large revenues, and did nothing with them, says Barnaby, but making great feasts every month or six weeks, at their halls, and causing victuals to be dear.' This honest monitor thought truly their wealth might be turned to a more honourable use ;' and he, therefore, proposed, that every company should provide and employ, at least, one ship laden with the commodities in which it dealt. This project of Barnaby's failed; but it had the effect of rousing the English Government. The Earl of Warwick, who then presided over the administration of affairs, resolved upon a general measure for the encouragement of English navigation, which, though it savoured of the despotic vigour of his Government, was fraught with the most beneficial consequences to England. The additional duty on all imports and exports made by foreigners was at once raised to twenty per cent. The Hanse-towns remonstrated warmly against an impost, which they, with truth, represented to be nearly prohibitory of all foreign shipping; but Warwick, satisfied to find their fears so far confirmed the wisdom of his conduct, persisted in the bold experiment. England was not now as in the early days of Edward the First, a country importing from the Continent most of the manufactures which it consumed; and a duty, which would have been absurd in principle, so long as the state

*

of things lasted, ceased to be so, when its object was to rouse Englishmen to be themselves the bearers, to all parts of the world, of the products of their own industry; the consequences of it were speedy and decisive. A bounty of twenty per cent on English shipping (for such, in fact, was the operation of the law,) soon filled the ports of England with native traders: a nursery for English mariners was established; and out of it there arose, ere many years elapsed, that naval power, but for which we might, once more, have been destined to receive from a foreign armada the fate of a conquered people."

Journal of a Residence in the Burman Empire. By Captain Hiram Cox, of the Hon. East India Company's Bengal Native Infantry. -8vo. pp. 260. 16s.

THE absence of any thing like pretension or display, would be sure to obtain for this modest volume our favorable notice, were it less entertaining than it really is. It is a simple, plain narrative of facts and observations committed to writing, whilst the impressions were yet fresh on the author's mind, and carrying with it the stamp of unquestionable authenticity. There is not, perhaps, any large portion of scientific or philosophical infórmation to be gleaned from it, as the writer seems to have confined his ambition to a mere narrative of his movements through the investigated country, with occasional sketches of its scenery, manners, and habits. This he has done in an amusing, and we have no doubt, faithful way: we have, consequently, ran through his pages with greater interest than, perhaps, would have been excited by a more elaborate and scientific work.

The journal commenced on the 8th of October, 1796, and concluded on November the 1st, in the following year. Though written so many years ago, the work is as applicable to the modern state of India, as if written at the present period; and, in consequence of our late rupture with the Burman empire, is particularly interesting at the present moment. The author appears to have been well qualified, as far as his limited opportunies permitted, to judge of the nation, through whose territories he proceeded; and he details, with candour and good sense, what occurred to him in the course of his journey. The work which we recommend to all who are interested in India affairs, and to the general reader, for the sake of the amusement and information it conveys in a frank and prepossessing manner, is illustrated with a few plates, representing a procession, and the costume of various classes of the Burmese population.

Remarks on the Country extending from Cape Palmas to the River Congo. By Capt. John Adams.-8vo. pp. 265. G. & W. B. Whittaker.

WITHOUT adding much to our knowledge of the internal geography of Africa, (a geography so much wanted,) Captain Adams has produced a very interesting account of the customs, institutions, manners, and laws of uncivilized life. His description of the Fantees, with which he commences his volume, is particularly important at the present moment, on account of their war with the Asshantees, in which Great Britain has become so unfortunately involved. They

« AnteriorContinuar »